RIYADH, 9 June 2006 — What should have been a normal taxi ride to go to his place of work turned out to be a nightmarish experience for a handicapped Indian expatriate.
Parameshwaran Nair, who lost his arm in an industrial accident years ago, got into a taxi to go to Al-Kharj from Riyadh. What should have been a routine 70-km trip turned into a nightmare for the expat from the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Speaking to Arab News by phone from his hospital bed, Nair said the cabbie tried to snatch his wallet as he was paying the fare.
When Nair resisted, the taxi driver pulled out an iron rod from his vehicle and smashed his leg into a pulp, dumped him on the roadside, and sped away with his day’s earning.
“I lost consciousness. When I recovered, I found myself in the Al-Kharj Government Hospital,” he said.
He said that some Saudi youths found him lying unconscious under the blazing sun. They took him to the hospital.
The police are on the lookout for the taxi driver, an Arab from an unknown country of origin, who is still at large.
There have been several instances in which some unscrupulous limousine drivers have preyed upon gullible passengers either by themselves or with the help of their accomplices.
They use their dirty tricks on isolated stretches of road when the vehicular traffic is thin and the chances of anyone coming to the passenger’s rescue are remote.
Asked how he had lost his arm, Nair said that it happened in a factory accident 14 years ago.
He was working in a stone-crushing plant, when his arm got crushed instead of the stone. With that, his dream of repaying his loan back home in his Malappuram district was also crushed.
Kelly, a social organization of Keralites, has appealed to the Indian Embassy for financial assistance, so that Nair could continue his medical treatment in an Indian hospital.
